Caption: Kristin Green and members of the Zongo community in Kumawu, Ghana at the foundation the community dug for a new latrine. Green, a Peace Corps volunteer from Coronado, is hoping to get donations to complete the latrine. Photo by George Green

Kirstin Green has moved from beautifying a public restroom in the South Bay to getting one built in Ghana.

Green was the driving force behind the mosaic on the mosaic bench at the Coronado Cays tennis courts and the Spreckels Park restroom in Coronado.

Now a Peace Corps water and sanitation specialist, the South Bay native is also trying to raise funding for a water tank to provide running water to the medical clinic.

Her parents, George and Katy Green, visited Ghana in January and said the new latrine and water tank are vital.

Ghana, in West Africa, is a multi-ethnic democracy of nearly 20.5 million people, according to the CIA World Factbook on line. There is a literacy rate of 74.8 percent and a birth rate of about 3.3 children per mother.

Kristin's Zongo community of about 1,500 people is in Kumawu, a town of about 10,000 in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The latrine would serve the Zongo community, and the water tank would benefit the 45,000 people in the surrounding area who use the clinic.

George Green says that the area's water table has fallen due to a long-term drought. Ghana boasts the world's largest man-made lake, Lake Volta. Water is trucked into the drought areas. Water for homes, businesses, the clinic, schools, churches and mosques - everything - must be brought in.

When Kristin arrived in Kumawu, she found that the community had built the foundation and walls for a new latrine, but the project was halted due to lack of funds.

The old latrine is full. People tend to go behind bushes to "free themselves," in the apt, local description phrase. The result is that animals and children roaming in the undeveloped area outside the community track human feces throughout the town. The resulting public health problems include "parasitic worms, flies and diseases that are transmitted by feces to mouth, like diarrhea," Kristin wrote in a "plea letter" for the project. "Don't laugh," she adds, "It's easier than you think to eat someone else's feces!"

Once the new latrine is built, it will be emptied by septic trucks.

Cost of the project is $5,248.20, a small sum in the U.S., but a huge amount of money in a country where the per capita income is abut $2,000 and the unemployment rate is estimated at 20 percent. "Ghana is terribly, terribly poor," George said.

Kristin has raised $550. Community members have already donated land and the labor for digging the pit and building the foundation. They will volunteer labor to construct the latrine and the local government will transport the materials and poly tank at no cost. The value of community donations comes to 30 percent of the project cost, according to a proposal summary Kristin prepared for the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps accepts donations for Kristin's project through its website. To see photos of Kumawu, the current poly tank, the current latrine and the site prepared for the new latrine, go to a web site George has created: http://kumawu.com. The site will also link you to the Peace Corps site.

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Story Source: Eagle and Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ghana

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